Downtowns done right

A packed crowd of brokers, attorneys and other real estate industry insiders listened to a panel extol the virtues of redevelopment in Long Island's downtowns at the Milleridge Cottage in Jericho Thursday.
Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri, Tritec's Bob Coughlan, Vincent Polimeni from Polimeni International, economist Marty Cantor from the Long Island Economic and Social Policy institute ...

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I am a Patchogue Village home owner, and what you are advocating is the creation of a city environment where I live. Like so many Long Islanders, I left NYC to escape the kind of downtown you envision. Specifically, we don’t want tall buildings, traffic noise and pollution and crowds of street pedestrians in our neighborhoods. Our appreciation of serenity is the reason many of us commute long distances to and from our jobs. Its the same old NIMBYism at play here; so long as high density downtowns are far from the neighborhoods of those who advocate high density downtowns, they can pretend it doesn’t exist while others in the affected area have to suffer its consequences. For those who are not willing to pay the higher costs of gas to get around, then they should move to NYC. If that sounds like you, remember, you’ll have to endure walking in shadows cast by tall buildings, hearing traffic noise — horns, sirens, noise from the motion of autos, buses and trucks on the streets, breathing in bus fumes and auto exhaust emissions and seeing pedestrians in your face everywhere you go. There will be no place to park except at meters and expensive garages. You will have to deal with meter maids and expired meter parking tickets. There will be a lot fewer trees, and concrete pavement will be the substitute for grass. You will loose the sense that nature prevails where walls of tall buildings replace the open sky. In fact, you will have to tilt your head back to see the sky. A few days of this might seem novel and viewed as an interesting diversion. But that sought of reaction will quickly wear off soon afterward. Trust me. I’ve lived there. I don’t want that depressing environment to revisit me here in Patchogue. Long time residents of Long Island have survived previous periods in which gas prices did not commensurate with their salaries. I strongly disagree with the view that we need high density downtowns to help keep young people on Long Island. Young people will purchase affordable homes offered virtually anywhere on the Island. It is not they who seek a downtown as a preferred location to live. It is, rather, those opposing building such subsidized housing in their serene neighborhoods who prefer a downtown location for these affordable home purchasers to live. Once again: NIMBYism! With respect to real estate taxes, the larger the population on Long Island (particularly the school age population), the greater our tax burden will be, since our taxes pay for government services provided to people. A smaller population translates into smaller government bureaucracies and fewer schools. Fewer paychecks to bureaucrats, teachers and school administrators means lower taxes. Overpopulation is destroying Long Island. We should not resort to urbanizing a neighborhood, which selectively victimizes its residents with the above discussed consequences of overdevelopment, as a remedy (a temporary one indeed) for reducing the tax burden for everyone else. That’s unfair. The foregoing underscores a very serious global problem which is given virtually no attention, and that is the overpopulation of our planet. If this problem is not checked, there will come a time when no open parcel of land is left undeveloped. Every land mass will be paved over, from horizon to horizon. The beauty of Earth’s natural landscapes will be gone forever.

Sincerely,

Rob

About the Author

David Winzelberg covers real estate, franchising, culture and white-collar crime for Long Island Business News.